Your free new garden next spring.

If you're thinking of starting a new garden for spring, now is the time to get that baby going! Pick out the area you want it in and put a posting on Freecycle requesting used carpeting. Usually you'll get more offers than you could use. I always put a note that I'd like to find some near my hometown to save travel costs and have always been successful.

Then put the carpets right over the grass or area you want a new garden and just let it sit through May, depending on your zone. When you pull it up, you'll see lovely brown dirt just waiting to be dug.

The dirt may be compacted if it was a lawn for many years, but go ahead and dig holes for all your new plants, then mulch like crazy!! There will still be a lot of weed/grass seeds in that dirt that will spring to life if you don't put down a heavy layer of newspaper or grass clippings or leaves in the bare areas between plants.

Another great use for carpets is under paths between two gardens. My neighbor was about to toss the carpet in the photo above, and I quickly scavenged it and will put it down as paths in my woodland garden, then cover it with free mulch from the city. If you've never gotten a free dumptruck load of mulch from your township, you're in for a treat. Completely without cost and enough to cover many gardens and pathways. They don't advertise this, so you may need to make a call to your town's public works department. Some landscapers that trim trees will also offer free wood chips. I've never had a problem, but I will note that some say wood chips from a diseased tree could cause problems for your trees, so you may want to research this.

Thinking spring this chilly October day! Oops - not so in the moment;-).

Eileen